BORN TO MAKE THE WORLD BETTER: HIS ROYAL HIGHNESS PRINCE MAHIDOL OF SIAM

If you are busy making an attempt to challenge your personal  courage in competitions with young teenagers sliding from the top of towers in the SIAM Park on Adeje coast, you will not see him at all. The sculpture of His Royal Highness Prince Mahidol of Songla is a moderst sculpture and a small one too.

The sculpture is situated in the SIAM park surrounded by trees and flowers. He is not a dominating person. I passed him many times before I descovered the sculpture of the late Prince from Thailand.The encounter with the Prince was a wake up call for me. I had no knowledge of the man and his life at all. Later on, I found information about him. He was born on January 1, 1891 in SIAM(Thailand) and he died in year 1929. He paid a visit to Tenerife in 1913. The impression of the island of the Prince was overwhelming – intoxicating. He wrote about Tenerife in his dairy. The result of the visit of the Prince to Tenerife was the building of SIAM park. The SIAM Park is a copy of a village in Thailand. The park is made for children and families to have fun playing with water in water. The activities in the park are many. But you may enjoy a the park without taking part in the activities. ” … Prince Mahidol was born to make the world a better place …” –the statement was made by Professor A.G.Ellis, a former Dean of Siriraj Medical School. The Prince left his military career to get a medical education. He enrolled at Havard University in United States. In 1921 he obtained his Certificate of Public Health and a Doctorate in Medicine in 1928. The former lieutenant in the Royal Thai Navy and the Imperial German Navy had gone ashore once and for all to work for the sick and the poor.A farewell to the arms, so to speak. Prince Mahidol decided to serve as a resident doctor at McCormick Hospital in Chiang Mai in Thailand. Prince Mahidol was honoured with the title ” Father of Modern Medicine and Public Health of Thailand ” due to his work to improve the medicine and publich health in Thailand.

The American missionary hospital in Chiang Mai in Thailand became his working place for only three months. But he could not help himself with his own disease. A fatal kidney disease made him pass away in 1929. The nation mourned a great man’s death at the age of only 37 years.

When you pay the park a visit make a pause at the sculpture of the Prince who was here in 1913, and pay respect for the late Prince who wanted to make the world a better one to live in.